Tenure review: Job-security tool for teachers gets fresh scrutiny

WASHINGTON (AP) - The decades-old tradition of tenure protects
teachers, often frustrates principals and has even surfaced as an
issue in the presidential campaign. Now tenure itself is under
review.

Tenure guarantees that public school teachers who have this
protection cannot be fired without legitimate cause and due
process, perhaps even a court hearing. Almost every state provides
tenure in some form.

Yet with federal law requiring schools to have a top teacher for
every core class, more administrators are questioning whether
tenure keeps them from getting rid of even a small number of
instructors who just are not good enough in the classroom.

Democrat John Kerry, the presidential candidate favored by
education unions, wants to make it easier for schools to act
quickly against poor teachers, provided that educators are
protected from baseless firings.

To teachers, tenure is a coveted and often misunderstood right -
not a lock on a lifetime job, but assurance of fair treatment,
including intervention for teachers who may be struggling to reach
students.

"It's protection against the false accusations, against
politically trumped up charges, against people who insist you must
teach a certain way or risk getting fired," said Penny Kotterman, a
special education teacher and president of the Arizona affiliate of
the National Education Association. She spoke during a group
interview Sunday with The Associated Press during the NEA's annual
meeting.

Tenure is most associated with colleges and universities, where
prospective professors earn it by compiling a rigorous record of
research, teaching and service.

In the kindergarten through high school world, it is typically
granted to teachers after two to five years of at least solid
performance in a district, although debate continues over its value
as a sign of quality.

Most principals and superintendents say tenure does not mean
teachers have proved themselves to be very good, and many teachers
agreed with that point in polls by the nonpartisan Public Agenda
research group.

But Kotterman said that is off the mark. Tenure, she said, is
meant mainly as an assurance of fair review, while certification
and regular evaluation of teachers are indicators of quality.

In the polls, most teachers said tenure protects them from
district politics and losing their jobs to newcomers who could be
hired for less.

David Sanchez, a kindergarten teacher from Burlingame, Calif.,
said tenure has helped teachers who were being pushed out of jobs
in retaliation for union activity.

Charles Hasse, a fourth-grader teacher and president of the
Washington Education Association, said tenure helps because schools
have fewer people in supervisory roles than many employers, making
"the opportunity for misjudgments much greater."

School administrators, who are often former teachers, say they
understand the point of tenure. But they say it can lead to
frustrating delays in replacing poor teachers, leading some
administrators to give up trying.

In Oklahoma, trying to remove a tenured teacher can lead to a
court hearing, said Ruth Ann Carr, superintendent of Ardmore Public
Schools. "You have to have people who are willing to go the
distance on those type of employment situations," Carr said. "They
end up feeling like they're the ones on trial."